


Stars

by LizAnn_5869



Series: Prompts and Requests [4]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Mild Smut, Traveling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-20
Updated: 2016-02-20
Packaged: 2018-05-22 06:50:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6069388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizAnn_5869/pseuds/LizAnn_5869
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose and the Metacrisis Doctor threw a dart at a world map and ended up traveling the American West.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stars

**Author's Note:**

> In my other Rose/Tentoo stories, they are growing a TARDIS. However, for the purposes of this story, I wanted to write about a moment of their lives when they are coming to terms with being left in Pete's World with no TARDIS. 
> 
> Written for @timepetalsprompts "wild adventure" and I chose "bed of a truck" as the location.

The sky was a deep, dark velvety blue studded with diamond-bright stars for as far as the eye could see. 

The Doctor lay back on the blankets and sleeping bags he and Rose had placed in the bed of the rented blue Ford pickup truck. Rose rolled over onto her side next to him, watching him watch the stars. She reached out and gently stroked his cheek, and he nuzzled into her hand with a pleased hum. "Happy?" she murmured.

"I'm with you," he answered. It should have been a relief for Rose to hear his response, but it wasn't. It felt like a deflection, like his "I'm always all right."

Rose gave a sigh, and the Doctor looked away from the stars long enough to catch her concerned expression. "What? I'm here with you, I'm happy," he said. "I've been happy to be on this adventure with you for this whole holiday. It's been wonderful. Don't you believe me?"

It had been a wonderful holiday. They'd spent Rose's sabbatical from Torchwood traveling the United States. That's where the dart she'd thrown at the world map in Pete's office told them they were going. They went to Disneyland where they held hands on Main Street and the Doctor told her how he'd consulted with Walt Disney on the layout of the Magic Kingdom in the prime universe all those years ago. Very little had been different in the Pete's World version. They had coffee in a hipster coffee house in Seattle and moved on to camp in Oregon and visit Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota.

"My eighth incarnation actually posed for the sculpture of Jefferson, you know. Tom was a good man, nearly as brilliant as me, and an excellent choice to lead the country. He hated his profile, though, and needed the help of a good orthodontist. So he asked me to pose." Rose didn't know whether to nod in belief or burst out laughing at the revelation. But when the Pete's World Jefferson had a pronounced overbite and a very crooked nose, she reckoned she had to believe him. 

They visited a wild horse sanctuary in South Dakota, where Rose had been captivated by the mustangs. She had taken many pictures on her new camera. The tour guide had parked the rickety school bus they used for tours, and Rose had been taking pictures, trying out her new zoom lens when the Doctor murmured, "They're not really wild, though, are they?"

Rose stopped snapping pictures to look at him questioningly. He continued, "It's fenced in...every need cared for....they're dependent on the people who run the sanctuary. Very different from being free to roam."

"If they were free to roam, they'd be in constant danger," Rose pointed out. She realized they weren't talking just about horses anymore, and her heart sank a bit. "I love that they're here, and they're safe. They might not be free to take off, but they are loved. You can tell by the way the tour guide talks about them."

He held her gaze for a bit, his expression unreadable. Then he reached out for the camera. "Hey, I want a turn," he said, and the subject was deflected. He grinned crookedly and started photographing Rose.

They rented the truck not long after that tour, throwing blankets and sleeping bags in the back. The weather was cool and clear and gorgeous. The sky was alight with stars. The Doctor was waiting for Rose to respond, and completely ignoring the stars. He saw that tears were blooming in her eyes. "Rose?"

She swiped at her eyes and said, "Nothing...'s beautiful out here, 's all."

"That's not why you're crying," he said.

Rose sat up suddenly, arms crossed tightly, as if to shield her body from a blow. The Doctor sat up as well, completely mystified. "How long are you going to stay with me?" she asked. She couldn't quite meet his eyes.

The Doctor cupped her cheek, trying to get her to look at him. "Rose. You know the answer to that."

She couldn't help the tears now, because it sounded like a "does it need saying" in her mind and that didn't help her at all. "No, I don't. I know that you love me. I believe that. What I don't know is if that will be enough for you. You don't have your TARDIS. You can't really ever be free. You're stuck here on the slow path with me and it just won't be enough, and I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. For the day when you just walk away." 

The Doctor's brain tried to catch up with her words. "No....no, it's forever. Forever. The answer to that question is forever, unequivocally, definitely forever. You're what makes not having a TARDIS bearable. I know I can live on this slow path and if I have you, and if I ever made you feel like somehow I didn't value you or want to be with you, I am so sorry." He kissed her softly and said, "With you. With you I am truly happy. Stuck with you is wonderful."

"You've not got the TARDIS in your head anymore. How can I live up to that?" Rose said simply.

"I had the TARDIS in my head for years when I was traveling with Martha and Donna. They could tell you. It still wasn't enough. When I met you and told you to run so long ago, I found what was missing. I love you. I miss my TARDIS terribly. I miss the stars. But this is the life I thought I'd never have. I've not seen this planet. I haven't traveled and made discoveries here. And I can't wait to. With you, Rose Tyler."

Rose searched his eyes and she must have liked what she saw there, she must make believed him, because she was suddenly in his lap in the bed of that rented blue truck, kissing him as if her life depended on it. He kissed her back gratefully. 

His life really did depend on it. His whole world narrowed to the feel of her lips on his, settling in for a thorough exploration of each other's mouths. The kiss broke and he lay back with her straddling him. His breath was taken away with the sight of Rose Tyler, eyes dark, smiling down on him with infinite stars twinkling behind her. "You and these stars. That's all I need," he murmured.

Rose felt that their future clicked into place right at that moment, and she could almost imagine that she could feel the timelines and the turn of the earth, just from looking in his dark eyes. "Forever," she murmured.

"Forever," he confirmed. He pulled her down to dim and he kissed her slowly and deeply, hands beginning to wander. She broke the kiss to tug her Mount Rushmore shirt over her head, stretching deliciously and he skimmed his hands gently up her ribs, making her wriggle against him a bit from the ticklish sensation. She giggled.

Sensation of another sort bloomed low in her belly as he unclasped her bra and the giggle turned into a gasp as he stroked his thumbs over her nipples lightly. They kissed again, but not for long. They divested each other of clothes as quickly as they could. His hands were shaking as he rolled her over gently and settled in to hold her closely. 

They'd made love before, beginning that first night in Norway, quiet and desperate in the room adjoining Jackie's, every bit as frantic as the kiss on the beach. 

They'd made love slowly and tenderly and loudly and any other way that two people who'd been starved for the other's touch for too long could. And it had been brilliant, but always tinged with desperation and worry and melancholy.

Tonight, however, in the bed of a rented truck under a South Dakota sky bursting with stars, there was nothing but joy as they joined, rocking together, shattering together in the cool night air. Rose looked up at the sky as he shuddered his release, and as she came down from her high with him wrapped around her tightly, she saw a shooting star. She'd long since given up on wishing on them. She didn't wish this time, either. She heard his words of love whispered roughly into her neck and realized that all she'd wished for had come true.


End file.
